Regional economy, and people, must be prioritized<\/p>\n
By Sjahrir, analyst and Chairman of the New Indonesia Alliance
\nParty( Partai Perhimpunan Indonesia Baru)<\/p>\n
Whoever wins the 2004 general elections will not be able
\nto govern properly if they do not attend to the economic problems
\nof the regions, and at the same time can overcome these issues.
\nThe 2004 general elections will produce a president holding a
\nhigh degree of credibility and legitimacy. In the country's
\nhistory, never before has there been a directly elected president
\nable to claim that at least 68 million Indonesians voted for him.
\nThe new president will need this mantle of legitimacy to tackle
\nthe country's economic problems, which are in fact the regional
\neconomic problems.
\nThere has been much talk about the regional autonomy law as well
\nas its implementation in the past two years. Attention has also
\nbeen directed toward misuse of regional budgets both at the
\nprovincial and regency levels, but it seems that few have made
\nefforts to find out the actual amount of damage that misuse or
\nbudget errors cause to the people.
\nGranted, we cannot disregard the problems caused by the
\nIndonesian Bank Restructuring Agency (IBRA), the implementation
\nof the Bank Indonesia liquidity support loans that is laden with
\nembezzlement as well as all the basic problems arising from both
\nof the above in the state budget, especially the huge interest
\npayments for government bonds.
\nNeither do I overlook the dilemma of enormous foreign loans,
\nespecially when related to the fact that in 2004 we will not ask
\nfor assistance from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to
\nreduce budget deficits or payment of foreign loans.
\nYet all of these concerns are meaningless if we do not attend to
\nthe possibility of disintegration and economic failure that are
\ncaused by our own failure in executing regional autonomy. This
\ndoes not include the ethnic, tribal or religious conflicts that
\nare not connected to regional autonomy.
\nIt would be totally unrealistic to discuss the Indonesian economy
\nwithout taking into account the economic condition of places such
\nas Bali, Southeastern Sulawesi, Labuhan Batu Medan regency and
\nEast Kutai regency in East Kalimantan.
\nThe national economy is not merely about listing the economic
\ncondition of the regions, and the provincial economy is also not
\nthe result of a rote totaling of the economy of the regencies and
\ncity administrations in a particular province.
\nIndeed, the science of regional economy has taught us how to make
\naccurate calculations relation to the country's economy as a
\nwhole. This is not about a scientific discussion on the
\nrelationship between regional and national economy, but examining
\ncertain dynamics with implications that are not well understood
\nby most of us.
\nWe often make statements on the importance of developing our
\nhuman resources. The human resources development data is
\ngenerally limited to the national statistics data on the level of
\neducation and type of occupation of our citizens. No less
\nimportant is the understanding of human resources in relation to
\nsome very basic aspects, such as the education and health status
\nof each individual citizen in a nation.
\nIn this connection, the services provided by the United Nations
\nand the National Development Planning Board in recording the
\nHuman Development Index are highly commendable. However, how to
\nuse all this data in the right context to decide the correct
\neconomy for a nation has not been considered by most of those in
\nthe government.
\nIt is precisely in this context that a study about regional
\nautonomy, especially Law No. 25 on regional finances, is central,
\nwith some prominent areas to be taken care of. There is no
\ndirection from the central government on the priorities of using
\nthe provincial as well as the regional\/city budgets. Though the
\navailable funds are not too small, very often no allocations are
\nmade for elementary schools or public health clinics.
\nMeanwhile, due to reasons of limited funds, allocations for both
\nelementary schools and public health clinics are also very small
\nin various cities and regions. Although fund limitations can be
\nunderstood in provinces like West and East Nusa Tenggara, there
\nis an inexplicable setting of priorities, with increases in
\nsalaries for legislative councilors still taking place and
\nallowances for governors and regional executives continuing
\nwithout review.
\nHere is the glaring misallocation of regional budgets, which has
\nnothing to do with the national budget that is handicapped by the
\nhuge payments of interest on government bonds. The regional
\nbudget that does not carry the burden of paying foreign loans is
\nenjoying these foreign loans in the form of various projects in
\nthe regions.
\nIt must be acknowledged that there have been great efforts in the
\nregions to increase the general fund allocation and the regional
\noriginal income, as well as various special funds allocation. On
\nthe other hand, there is no fiscal discipline in using the
\nbudget.
\nWe can clearly detect why there is a great movement to expand the
\nregions, because by such expansions there will be more provinces
\n-- meaning more governors and a greater number of local
\nlegislative councilors, and more regencies and cities - which
\ntranslates into more regents, mayors and councilors at the level
\nof regional and city legislative assemblies.
\nIf we let this happen, there will be the loss of trillions of
\nrupiah for salaries, allowances and all sorts of routine expenses
\nfor the new bureaucrats of legislation and executive at the local
\nlevels.
\nWhat will be left for the people?
\nThere are media reports lamenting decrepit elementary school
\nbuildings in the provinces. What is more terrifying than the
\nphysical condition of the schools is the output in the form of
\nelementary school graduates with minimal capacity, both knowledge
\nand skill-wise.
\nAbundant reports are available on the thousands of public health
\nclinics that have no antibiotics, and public hospitals lacking
\nthe most basic facilities, attesting to the terrible condition of
\nhealthcare in the country.
\nIt is different from the country's situation in the 1980s and the
\n1990s, when even as income from oil exports and foreign loans
\nwere embezzled, new elementary schools were built and public
\nhealth clinics were able to secure sufficient supplies of
\nmedicines from state-owned companies like PT Indofarma that
\nproduced a number of essential medicines.
\nIt seems clear that we are preparing to embark on the destruction
\nprocess of our nation if there are no meaningful changes in the
\nway we view the regions, which require budgets with clear-cut
\npriorities to fulfill the basic requirements of the people.
\nOf course, that does not mean a disregard for the very real
\nproblems in the regions, such as the investment climate and
\ninstitutional problems connected to the legislative and executive
\nbodies, all of which need changes and much hard work.
\nUltimately, the success of the future president of Indonesia will
\nbe based on the ability to cope in overcoming the most basic
\nproblems faced by the regions and improving the welfare of the
\npeople.
\n1<\/p>",
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